Tom Tancredo and Coconuts

Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah, also known as Mr. Amnesty, one of La Raza's heroes, was trounced in the Utah primary by a relative unknown who is from the Tom Tancredo school of immigration reform. Cannon's been bulletproof until the election despite his steadfast cheerleading for amnesty, open borders and increased benefits for illegal aliens. Poll data show that Cannon's immigration stance was a major factor in his defeat. I'm hoping this is a sign that we apathetic gringos are finally connecting the dots about what's happening to our country as a result of our de facto unrestricted immigration policy. What's your take?

Legal Resident

Dear Gabacho,

Keep hoping. Railing against Mexicans might win local races, but it's simply not an issue that translates into a platform for national electoral victory. If it was, Tancredo would've become the Republican candidate for president instead of his sworn enemy, John McCain; instead, he sits somewhere in Colorado, drowning his tears in green chile over his hypocritical endorsement of McCain. The problem for your side of the political aisle is that you've never been able to lay out a cogent argument against illegal immigration that doesn't inevitably turn into a Know Nothing screed against culture. Again: Look at Tancredo, also known as Mr. Deportation, who's now leaving Congress with little to show for his nine years on Capitol Hill other than having his name become a synonym for pendejo.

Dear Mexican,

I'm half-Catalan, and the women on my mom's side of the family have spent most of our lives being hated by Mexicans. I've never understood it. My mom and aunts warned me as soon as I hit junior high that I was going to have a target on me, because they had one too when they were my age. It didn't make sense — I had the same Mexican friends since kindergarten. Most of my life I grew up in a mostly Mexican neighborhood, and I spoke their language. But it didn't matter — my mom, her six sisters and most of my cousins and me have been called "coconut" or some other mean thing because of our background, and all of us have been threatened by at least one MEChA member. It wasn't only our fellow students — none of us could take a Spanish class without a teacher telling us that we were completely wrong, and that no one talked or wrote like us anymore. But no males in my family ever experienced this. Can you please tell me why Mexican women hate Spanish women?

Barcelona Babe

Dear Ethpañola,

Don't you get it, chula? You're the oppressor, the whore of the power elite. Mother of the Conquest. Your sons slaughtered millions of Indians. Go back to Europe, you pilgrim. No human being is illegal. Sí se puede. Sorry — had to shake some radicalism out of me — ¡Que viva la raza! Anywhoo, there's no rhyme or razón for the hate wabs inflicted on the women of your family. Spanish-bashing is a sport practiced mostly by the Bush administration desde cuando the country left his Coalition of the Willing — Mexicans got over hating their ancestors a while ago, once the gabachos came into play. Since you don't provide details about specific anti-Spanish slurs lobbed your way (the coconut or vendido — sellout — jab is one thrown by many insecure Mexicans at their better-off peers, while the ­Spanish-language bit probably owes more to your people's way of speaking español, which you gotta admit is kinda fey), I can only deduce that either the women in your family are envy-producing ladies or bitches.